Wawona Packing Company of California have expanded its original July 19 recall of whole white and yellow peaches, white and yellow nectarines, plums, and pluots. The products are believed to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The original recall affected products packaged between June 1 and July 12, 2014. The company is now expanding the recall to include all products packaged up until July 17 2014 as a precaution. The measures were taken after the company's experts failed to determine the exact source of the contamination, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported.
Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious or even fatal illness in young children, elderly individuals, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems. Healthy people can suffer minor symptoms such as "high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea," the FDA reported. The organism has been linked to miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
As of July 18, 2014 no products have been packed at the Wawona Packing facility in Cutler, Calif.
The recalled products include the following: Sweet 2 Eat, Sweet 2 Eat Organic, Mrs. Smittcamp's, as well as some private labels. These brands will be on the box or a sticker directly attached to the fruit. Anyone who is in posession of contaminated items should discard them immediately. Consumers can also return the products to the store they were purchased from for reimbursement, provided they have proof of purchase.
The original recall was based on internal company testing. After discovering the contamination the company "shut down the packing lines, retrofitted equipment, [and] sanitized the facility." They are currently working to improve their food safety program. The packing lines will not be reopened until the source of the organism has been located.
"Wawona Packing believes in the highest standards of food safety. We have been working around the clock to determine the source of the Listeria monocytogenes. We have brought in nationally known experts in food safety to investigate every part of our packing facility, and we are working with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration," said company president Brent Smittcamp, the FDA reported.
